German Language

Those who are interested in learning a new language may want to know some more about it. The German language has a rich and beautiful history, and it is spoken by a large number of people in the world today. Although it obviously is spoken in Germany, the German language is spoken in several parts of Europe. Those who want to speak German with other people can go to Germany, northern Italian regions, areas of Belgium, places in France, as well as some border villages in Denmark. In addition to being the official language of Germany, it is also the official language of Austria. There are also people in Austria and Switzerland where there are German speaking people. Close to one hundred million people around the world currently speak German.

The history of the German language begins in the early middle ages. During the next several hundred years, the language continued to evolve. There is Old High German, Middle High German, and Early Modern High German. The earliest records that prove the existence of any German date to around 750. This was when the local dialects became more coherent and began to form the real language. Middle High German was what was between the extremely old and perhaps incoherent German, and what is considered to be modern German. This period lasted from about 1050 to 1500, and there are several scholarly pieces that define that language.

These changed and continued to evolve toward modern German through the Holy Roman Empire. What is considered to be modern German fell into place in around the year 1500. In around the eighteenth century, some writers essentially laid out the form that Germany still uses today. The entire language comes from some of the same languages that English does, and it is the same category of languages. They do work similarly with grammar, although the pronunciations are very different.

There are still some variations and dialects of the German language in use today, although there are far fewer than there were in the past. About 400,000 people currently use a dialect of German that not only sounds differently than standard German, but also has differences in grammar. The only recent changes in the German language were in the 1990s, when there was a national reform in spelling that eventually infiltrated into the school system and has since become commonly used. However, there are some in the media who still use the traditional spellings as well.

This is a language that has a rich history spanning back a very long time, and has continued to change and evolve into the interesting language that it is today. Aside from being spoken in so many places in Europe, there are a number of people that speak German or a dialect of German in the United States. While some are from Germany, there are some people who speak Germanic languages who are part of Amish communities. This is a rich and diverse language that is spoken in many parts of the world.